PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: RESEARCH EDUCATION CORE The Research Education Core will engage students from the undergraduate to the doctoral level and complement other federally-supported mechanisms at NAU and the UACC. The NACP will continue one-on- one student research experiences with NACP-associated faculty and expand curricular offerings across institutions. The Research Education Core will promote guided grant writing experiences in collaboration with the GUIDeS Shared Resource to increase the number of Native American scholars entering the CURE pipeline. Finally, the Core will continue its strong partnership with the Planning and Evaluation and Outreach Cores to provide validated outcomes and cancer education to students' communities. The specific aims are to: Aim 1. Develop a new undergraduate cancer disparities course as a joint effort between NAU and UACC. The course will include NACP-associated faculty from both institutions and fill gaps in existing curricula. Coursework will cover cancer disparities, research with tribal communities, scientific writing, critical thinking, and Responsible Conduct of Research training. The course will enroll 20-30 students per year. Aim 2. Provide research experiences to further grow the Native American biomedical workforce. NACP- associated faculty will continue to offer hands-on, experiential learning opportunities within research laboratories focused on cancer and/or Native American cancer health disparities. The goal is to mentor and train at least 18 Native American undergraduate students per year and assist in the transition of at least 35 Native American students into advanced biomedical degree programs with a continued focus in cancer. Aim 3. Create programming and support services to promote CURE pipeline applications from Native American graduate students and postdoctoral trainees. Activities will entail: 1) recruiting NACP scholars who want to become independent cancer researchers; 2) guiding scholars to NACP, institutional, and national resources for developing competitive CURE pipeline proposals; and 3) mentoring faculty to work with their scholars to obtain competitive CURE funding and begin developing a publication track record. The aim is to develop six CURE submissions and ensure every scholar co-authors one paper. Expected Impact: The expected impact after five years is that the Research Education Core will have provided cancer disparities curriculum to >100 undergraduates, engaged 18 students a year in research experiences, mentored 35 Native American students into advanced degree programs, and developed 10 CURE applications with NACP mentors.